At dusk on September 1, 1951, a volunteer army convoy was driving on the rugged mountain path in North Korea in a tight camouflage. As night fell, the convoy finally reached its destination and stopped. There is no extra noise, only the tense and orderly work of the crew members. Why do they come? Following the commander's order, the various vehicles suddenly ejected countless fire dragons flying towards the enemy's position. The enemy's position was in a sea of flames and the mountains were shaking. Volunteer infantry took advantage of the situation to charge and seized the enemy's position in one fell swoop. Where is this mysterious caravan? It turned out to be the famous "Katyusha" rocket launched by the artillery of our Volunteer Army for the first time.
BM13-type Katyusha rocket launcher
The instant the Katyusha rocket launched
, it was the 203th Regiment of the 21st Division of the Artillery of the Volunteer Army. It started the first battle of the rocket artillery since entering the DPRK. The regiment was equipped with 24 Katyusha rocket launchers and fired together at the two battalions of the US 7th Division entrenched in the back hole. In an instant, 384 shells fell from the sky. The US army was disoriented and wounded within a few minutes. The enemy army reached more than 700 people. The American soldiers who survived by chance couldn’t imagine how the volunteers’ artillery could be so dense and powerful, because they have been fighting the volunteers on the Korean battlefield for almost a year, and they have never experienced it. The mysterious sudden shelling. They repeatedly exclaimed that the Volunteers had used atomic cannons. At this time, the US military did not know that the Volunteers’ artillery units were secretly equipped with Soviet-made lethal weapons, Katyusha rockets.
Volunteer Rocket Artillery Unit
Volunteer Rocket Artillery Unit is in live-fire training
Volunteer Rocket Artillery Unit is equipped with Soviet-made BM-13 rocket artillery. It is based on a truck and has a maximum speed of 90 kilometers per hour. It has 8 launch tracks, namely It can be fired in a single shot or a salvo. A salvo can fire 16 rockets with a caliber of 132 mm in seven to ten seconds. The maximum range is 8.5 kilometers, and it takes about 5-10 minutes to load a salvo of ammunition. The rocket flies by the thrust of its own engine, so the rocket does not need to withstand the huge pressure of the barrel and the breech, so it can launch the rocket with a larger diameter and volume, which makes the rocket has a power that cannot be compared with the traditional artillery. And range advantage, can quickly implement large-area fire coverage for cluster targets. Rockets are divided into kill bombs, blast bombs, armor-piercing bombs, and incendiary bombs according to their damage to the target. According to the flight stability method, they can be divided into tail-type rockets and turbo-type rockets. Because the rocket launcher is based on a truck, it can be maneuvered quickly, and after the launch, it can quickly move its position to avoid enemy air force and artillery bombing.
Volunteer Katyusha rockets are firing violently.
Katyusha rockets are firing at night.
Before the Katyusha rockets are equipped with volunteers, the North Korean army faces the so-called United Nations armed to the teeth. To contend with it, the emergence of the Katyusha Rocket Launcher changed this situation. In the future struggles, the United Nations Army headed by the U.S. Army was even more frightened. The Volunteer Rocket Launcher continued to sum up experience in actual combat and used flexible and changeable tactics to be efficient. And fiercely hit the enemy. It took two and a half years for the 21st Division of the Rocket Artillery to enter the DPRK. With the support of our 12 armies and the support of our brothers’ artillery units, the synchronised troops fought more than 30 times, wiped out more than 100,000 enemies, 56 tanks, and cars. More than 230 units, more than 30 artillery pieces, shot down and damaged 24 enemy aircraft, strongly supported infantry operations, and played an important role on the battlefield to resist US aggression and aid Korea. In October 1953, he completed the mission of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, defending his country, and returned to the motherland victoriously.
